Re: cache directory is not removed

[Paul Eggert]

> From: Sam Steingold <address@hidden>
> Date: 06 Jun 2002 11:26:02 -0400
> 
> I could never understand why autoconf was written in m4 in the first
> place. this is not a troll, I would really appreciate a clarification.
> 
> perl or, better yet, clisp (http://clisp.cons.org) appear to be more
> reasonable choices for just about any task.

Well, partly it's because Autoconf was written before Perl or clisp
were stable enough.

But even if the choice were made now, it's not clear to me that m4
would be a bad choice for Autoconf per se.  Autoconf is essentially a
text-processing problem, and m4 is a macro processor.  Perl, clisp,
etc. are to some extent overkill and a distraction.  (This is not to
say that m4 is an ideal match for autoconf's needs.)

Merely replacing m4 with Perl won't dramatically improve
Autoconf/Automake/Make/etc.  If we want to improve things in a big
way, we need to rethink the entire build process, and then decide what
tools to use to implement the new process.